The pale, hesitant morning light filtered through the irregular cracks of the heavy wooden window in the guest room, illuminating the dense dust particles dancing in the frigid air. Outside, behind the stone walls of the castle, the world slowly awoke to a biting, damp cold.
William was the first to open his eyes. He didn't wake up with the usual heavy drowsiness of a modern man forced to sleep on a lumpy medieval straw mattress. Instead, he felt as if his own bone marrow had been completely replaced by violently vibrating liquid mercury. A subtle, high-frequency electric hum coursed through his dense muscle fibers, making his fingertips tingle and his jaw clench involuntarily.
Before he could even draw breath to complain about the freezing temperature of the room, the translucent blue screen of the System flashed violently in his field of vision, vibrating with a soft, melodious chime that only he could hear.
[DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM: STATUS UPDATE]
User: [William]
Attributes:
Strength: 9
Speed: 11
Endurance: 9
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 7
Magic Power: 3 [Teleportation]
— "Fuck..." William muttered, sitting bolt upright. The dry straw beneath him rustled loudly in the silence of the room. He stared at the glowing, floating text, his eyes wide in a mix of shock and predatory joy. His physical attributes were already near the peak of unenhanced human capacity, but the term "Teleportation" sent a massive wave of pure, unadulterated adrenaline straight through his nervous system. — "And I have 3? I really am the GOAT, now they'll have to respect me HAHAHAHAHA!"
Without a second thought, he lunged across the freezing gap between the beds and shook Arthur by the shoulders with a sudden, brutal force that almost sent his sleeping friend rolling onto the hard stone floor.
— "Art! Wake up, bro! Get up!" William hissed, his voice a frantic, vibrating whisper. — "The System Status updated! We aren't just shitty extras in designer hoodies anymore. We have real Magic now, bro!"
Arthur stretched in protest, his highly analytical mind struggling to bridge the comfortable gap between the fleeting dream of a hot shower and the miserable, freezing reality of a guest room in Graycastle. As he sat up, rubbing his tired eyes, his own interface appeared, casting a cold, calculating blue glow over his striking features.
[DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM: STATUS UPDATE]
User: [Arthur]
Attributes:
Strength: 6
Speed: 7
Endurance: 8
Agility: 8
Intelligence: 14
Magic Power: 1 [Telekinesis]
Arthur frowned, his fingers tracing the cold metallic edge of his wristwatch out of deeply ingrained habit. He compared the two floating screens with a look of deep concern. — "Maybe we unlocked it by contributing to Anna's safety yesterday. But why is my Magic Power amount only 1? You said yours is 3?"
— "Three, partner! Three full charges of raw power!" William threw several punches in the freezing air, shadowboxing, a muffled, arrogant laugh escaping his throat. He was careful to keep his voice relatively low; he knew Chief Knight Carter Lannis was probably patrolling the cold corridor outside, his paranoid ears alert to any suspicious sign.
William leaned forward, flashing a smug smile. — "It seems the System knows exactly who the 'protagonist' of this story is. I started with the powerful V8 engine, while you're still pedaling a tricycle HAHAHAHAHA. But hey, look on the 'bright side', at least you win in Intelligence HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The System clearly knows I'm the one who heroically solves problems with my fists, while you're the sidekick stuck in the back writing the instruction manual," William laughed, writhing on the floor.
Arthur stood up, his bare feet immediately pulling away from the freezing stone floor. He ignored the taunt, his mind already spinning with possibilities. He made a sharp gesture for William to follow him to the farthest, darkest corner of the room, away from the heavy wooden door and the curious eyes of any servants.
— "We need to test this right now, but we have to maintain absolute silence. Total silence, William," Arthur warned, his tone completely serious. — "It's not Roland or Carter I'm worried about. Roland is a transmigrator like us; he wouldn't execute us, he'd probably just want to test and study our powers, just like Anna. But still, we can't risk altering the timeline this early."
William tilted his head. — "What do you mean by that?"
— "In the original story of 'Release That Witch', only women awaken as witches. We are a massive technical anomaly — a glitch in the established biology of this world," Arthur explained, lowering his voice to a harsh whisper. — "If we reveal our powers, the secret will eventually leak. The Church has spies everywhere. Remember how Archbishop Heather's agents found out Roland was harboring witches in the original timeline? If the Holy City of Hermes catches even a rumor that 'wizards' exist here, it will trigger absolute panic. They won't wait. Even though they can't invade the Kingdom of Graycastle right now, they would divert all their attention to Border Town. All of this years before Roland's armed forces are ready to face them. We'd be bringing the second biggest possible threat right to our doorstep."
William nodded. — "Right, let's test it then," William whispered, his usual arrogant expression finally shifting into a rare moment of lethal concentration. He stood completely still in the center of the cramped room, fixing his gaze on a small shadow near the unlit fireplace, exactly two meters away. He closed his eyes and reached inward, searching for that "Initial Magic Flow" they had received as a system reward for completing Anna's rescue quest. It felt like a heavy reservoir of high-pressure steam trapped behind his ribs, demanding to be released.
He made an effort to relieve the pressure.
With an almost inaudible pop — the unmistakable sound of ambient air rushing violently to fill a sudden vacuum — William's silhouette simply vanished. In the exact same microsecond, he materialized directly over the target shadow.
— "Whoa!" William stumbled violently, his knees buckling as his boots touched the floor in his new position. A massive wave of intense, sickening nausea hit him, and the stone room seemed to tilt nauseatingly at a forty-five-degree angle. He grabbed the cold fireplace to steady himself. — "It's... it's completely instantaneous, bro! But damn, I feel like I got hit by a speeding bicycle. My head is spinning... I feel like my heart just ran seven kilometers in a single second."
— "Spatial displacement," Arthur analyzed quickly, his eyes following the faint, lingering ripple in the cold air where William had been an instant before. — "There are two hypotheses: either your amount of 3 strictly dictates your 'charges', or it dictates your maximum spatial distance before total Magic Power exhaustion sets in. It's an A-tier combat skill, Will, but the physical toll is apparently very draining for an unadapted body. Well, now it's my turn!"
Arthur focused all his willpower on a small, dented tin mug resting innocently on the wooden nightstand. He extended his right hand, not to exert physical force, but to project his mind through that same internal "Flow." He didn't think of it as mystical "magic"; he visualized it as the application of a directed vector of kinetic energy to a static object.
The mug trembled. It rattled aggressively against the wood for a tense moment, resisting the invisible force, before slowly, agonizingly rising exactly five centimeters off the surface. Arthur's face instantly turned red, a vein visibly pulsing at his temple under the immense mental strain. He held the suspended mug there for three agonizing seconds before the invisible "grip" in his mind suddenly slipped like wet soap. The mug dropped with a muffled, disappointing metallic clatter.
— "My God... it's incredibly heavy," Arthur muttered, wiping a thick drop of cold sweat from his forehead. He felt a sharp, phantom pain behind his eyes. — "My 'Level 1' Telekinesis feels like trying to lift a medium-sized rock with a wet noodle compared to the sheer power of your teleportation jumps."
They sat heavily on the floor, in the dark shadows between the beds, the immense gravity of their new superhuman reality finally settling into their modern minds.
— "So, how exactly do we improve this?" asked William, rubbing his chin hard as the severe dizziness finally began to fade. — "Are we going to sit around waiting for system quest rewards, or do we have to use the 'Anna method' and train brutally until we pass out in a ditch?"
— "I have no idea. Probably both, but mostly the latter," Arthur replied, his "metaknowledge" working overdrive to connect the dots. — "I know a lot more about the original timeline of this world than you do, Will. You only watched the anime and read the manga up to the point where Roland finally defeats Timothy and officially takes the throne of Graycastle. But I know the story much deeper than that."
Arthur leaned forward, his eyes shining with the thrill of the puzzle. — "In the original story, Roland discovers that magic isn't just arbitrary, fantastical nonsense; it actively evolves through a profound understanding of natural laws and physics. Eventually, Anna's fire will turn green and burn at an incredibly precise temperature once she understands thermodynamics. And when she truly comprehends the relationship between heat and molecular activity, it will evolve again."
Arthur tapped his temple. — "If the magic our system grants us follows the same universal laws of this world, then my high Intelligence attribute isn't just a random number for reading books — it's the direct multiplier of my power. Perhaps, if I can deeply understand the fundamental physics of gravity, mass, and kinetic energy, I can evolve this Telekinesis to something better, like direct molecular manipulation or creating localized gravity wells."
— "Yeah, I already know that, it's at the beginning of the story. I just want to know what I need to understand to evolve my teleportation. Imagine me jumping across the map from city to city! I could be like Nightcrawler from the X-Men and be almost untouchable! Or even better... I could instantly 'explore' and rescue the other hot witches scattered across the kingdom without being seen by those sons of bitches from the Church!"
Arthur shot him a look of deep, exasperated disapproval. — "Take this more seriously, William. This is a real survival scenario, not a fantasy dating sim. If you want to safely increase your Magic Power and spatial range without disintegrating, you'll probably have to do the same as the witches: completely exhaust your Magic Power reserves every day to avoid the deadly 'Demonic Bite' that occurs every winter. So treat this magical ability exactly like a rigorous Olympic training regimen."
— "Right, right, you already told me that," William agreed, his arrogant expression returning to become deadly serious. — "I was thinking, what if we trained enough to reach the level of an 'Extraordinary' witch? Like Tilly Wimbledon or Ashes? They are biologically immune to the anti-magic field of the Stones of God's Retaliation! If we reach that absurd level of power, the demons, the demonic beasts, the church, half the world and their mothers could unite against us, and we would still win."
— "Perhaps, but we still have a long way to go until then," Arthur said pragmatically, standing up as the distinct, rhythmic sound of heavy, armored boots echoed down the distant, freezing corridor. — "For now, we will keep this an absolute secret. We are just eccentric 'academics' from an advanced, distant land. Our magic is our hidden blade. It's our final trump card for when the established plot inevitably goes completely off the rails because of our presence. Roland's science will be our public shield, but this... this will be our lethal weapon."
Inside the cramped and freezing guest room, the air seemed to vibrate with the newly contained energy of the two transmigrated men. William stood up abruptly and, unable to contain himself, attempted another jump. He reappeared on the other side of the room with a much quieter, more controlled thud. He panted heavily, his hands resting on his knees, and his modern t-shirt rapidly soaking with cold sweat.
— "Teleportation, it's the strangest feeling of all," William whispered, his voice thick with awe. — "It's not like moving quickly through space; it's as if the whole world folds in on itself like origami and then violently spits me out on the other side. But now I can clearly feel the limit. If I try to jump blindly through a solid stone wall without knowing exactly what's on the other side... I think my brain would just fry forever in the void. My amount of 3 is my only biological safety valve preventing me from materializing inside a rock."
Arthur smiled slightly as he concentrated again, finally managing to make a blunt metal spoon float steadily for a full ten seconds before releasing it. — "Teleportation is an excellent, unparalleled skill; it serves for both mobility and combat. Therefore, if you can master the precise vectors of spatial displacement and overcome the nausea, you will undoubtedly be the most powerful being in this universe. But, as I said, be very careful and avoid using it in public places."
— "Relax, Roland 'is one of us'; besides, he doesn't even understand how things work in this world yet," William scoffed, though his voice lacked its usual arrogance. — "But think about it, Art... the Witch Cooperation Association. They are out there right now, suffering in the cold. If I could jump, I'd find their camp in the Impassable Mountain Range. I could bypass the terrain and bring them here instantly. We could build our own unstoppable organization of witches, right under Roland's nose. I mean, the 'fake Prince's' nose HAHAHAHA."
Arthur rolled his eyes, considering the risks of that and the suspicions that would fall upon them. He completely disagreed with William's idea. — "No! The immediate focus is surviving the winter. Barov will probably inform Roland in the coming days about the terrifying reality of the Months of Demons. The demonic beasts are no longer just words in a book, but real human body-tearing machines. They are designed to smash through even a solid stone wall if it isn't properly reinforced with modern engineering. Imagine what they would do to our fragile flesh and bone bodies. We need our magic to be secretly integrated into the defense of the First Army, as a last resort. If it flows like the original story, there will be no need for us to risk ourselves. That is exactly how we will guarantee victory this winter!"
The heavy sound of footsteps grew louder, finally stopping in front of the heavy oak door. Immediately, William threw himself onto the messy bed and feigned a loud snore, while Arthur smoothly picked up a piece of charcoal and feigned deep academic interest in a rudimentary map of the kingdom spread out on the wobbly table.
The heavy bolt slid back with a harsh rasp, and the door creaked open, revealing Chief Knight Carter Lannis. The tall knight's expression was as stern and indecipherable as a cold granite slab.
— "His Highness requests the immediate presence of you both in the palace courtyard," Carter announced, his piercing eyes narrowing in suspicion as they quickly scanned the cramped room for any sign of possible treason. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, his watchful gaze lingering on the tin mug Arthur had moved with his mind. It was slightly, almost imperceptibly, out of the place where a servant would have left it.
As they silently followed the heavily armored knight through the cold, echoing stone corridors of the castle, William gave Arthur a discreet, pointed nudge with his elbow. — "Nail the conversation again today, huh? I don't want to have to live on the streets. Four days since we arrived in this horrible mud pit, couldn't it at least have been a slightly more modern universe like Magic Academy's Genius."
— "He won't send us away," Arthur muttered, his voice almost inaudible amidst the clanking of Carter's armor. — "He desperately needs us to translate our fragmented memories of the future into a practical language he can actually build with fearlessly. And we need him... because a primitive world of blood and snow is a very lonely and dangerous place to have magic that you can't show anyone."
They entered the spacious courtyard, where Prince Roland was already waiting for them. The transmigrated prince looked completely exhausted, with deep, dark circles marking the skin under his eyes, but his expression revealed an intense, burning expectation. Spread out on the heavy, solid oak table in front of him was the rudimentary map of Border Town, ores from the North Slope Mine, and some iron tools.
An era that no traditional history book of Graycastle would ever be able to accurately record, for it was being written in secret by three modern men who had stolen the fire of the gods from the future.